


Gaining Control

by Galrafloofandlove



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Epilepsy, Lance (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Pre-Canon, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Seizures, Supportive Coran (Voltron), Supportive Shiro (Voltron), Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 20:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15737121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galrafloofandlove/pseuds/Galrafloofandlove
Summary: "She had her first seizure when she was four days old. She flew her first spaceship at seventeen."- prompt! Except I'm changing the seventeen to fifteen, the age Pidge was when the show first started.We need more epilepsy awareness, and knowing that having epilepsy doesn't effect how much a person is worth.





	Gaining Control

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write something like this, having epilepsy myself. I hope you enjoy reading.

"Katie! There's a letter for you!” The thirteen year old scrambled down the stairs the second her name was called. It had been three weeks since she had submitted her application for the Galaxy Garrison, and only two weeks until the Kerberos Mission left with her brother and father. Plus some other pilot, Katie hadn't listened when Matt went on about how good he was at flying or how her dad was so happy they got him on the flight team. After all, the Garrison didn't want the pilot flying and neither did the guy’s fiance. But her dad trusted the guy, so what could go wrong? 

She tore open the letter her mom handed her, and read the letter in despair

“Dear Katie Colleen Holt, 

We appreciate your application to the Galaxy Garrison. However, we cannot accept you into our cadet piloting program because of your medical conditions and history…”

There was much more to the letter, but she couldn't stand to read the rest. She threw the rejection letter on the kitchen table and ran back up the stairs, her mother calling after her and she slammed the door to her room shut.

 

A knock on her door caused her to pick her head off the pillow soaked with tears. A soft male voice rang from behind the closed door. “Hey Pidge?” The voice asked. “Don't call me that Matt.” She said, wiping a tear from face as she saw the door crack open, and a boy with round glasses, short hair that was slightly lighter than Katie’s own, and wore a seafoam sweatshirt. He had a small glass of water in his hands, and a small orange bottle was tucked under his arm. “Alright, sorry Katie.” He said with an underlying sadness in his tone. He set the glass of water down on her nightstand, and she grabbed it from the nightstand with shaky hands. The click of the prescription bottle opening rang quietly in her ears as she took a small sip of the water and held her hand out, waiting for the small white oval to be placed in her hands. She felt a the tiny pill being placed in her palm and she popped it into her mouth before swallowing with a sip of water from the glass. As Matt looked away for a second to close the pill bottle again, and Katie took the opportunity to bury her head into the pillow again. 

Matt sat down next to her and started running through her hair in an attempt to soothe her. She tried to bat his hand away, but he was still stronger than her. In just a few minutes they were in a full-out arm wrestling match that ended with Katie winning (mostly only because Matt let her, but she was quite strong, all things considered.) They laid on her bed, laughing, completely forgetting about the Garrison or her epilepsy or the fact that she had just been crying a minute ago. 

Because Matt was here. 

She wished it could always be like this. 

~~~~~~

“So this is it.” Katie smiled looking at the ship that would take her brother and father to Kerberos.  
Matt walked up behind him. “Yep. I'm going to space.” He sighed and smiled. Her father and mother were exchanging a few words off to the side. Looking around the launch site, she saw Garrison commanders, technics, and others working on making sure the ship was ready for take off. She saw a man who she assumed to be the pilot talking to somebody in the bright orange cadet uniform, and she smiled. Even though the Garrison had rejected her, she was still keeping her grades up in hope that they would let her in someday.  
“Hey, I have something for you.” Matt suddenly said, shaking her out of her thoughts. Matt removed his glasses and placed them on the bridge of her nose. She raised an eyebrow in question.  
“Won't you need these in space?” She asked.  
“Nope. The Garrison fixed my vision. Do I look more handsome now?” He asked with a smirk.  
She laughed. “Not at all.”  
They both just stood there, the wind blowing Katie's hair in front of her face and the fabric of her dress skirt carefully rippling in the cool air.  
“I'm really going to miss you guys…” she said, fidgeting with her hands.  
“You can always talk to us. Remember, what the Garrison doesn't know won't hurt them.” Matt smiled. He looked good without glasses, it would just take some getting used to. He had worn glasses for as long as Katie could remember.  
A small smile crept up onto her lips. Matt sighed as who Katie had assumed was the pilot was telling him it was time to go. The cadet was still at the pilot's side, and although Pidge didn't know who he was he seemed pretty attached to the pilot. Matt started to leave, before turning back to face his sister. “See you, Katie!” Before he ran off, she cupped her hands around her mouth to make a little megaphone, and called to him. “Call me Pidge.” Even from as far away as the two were, she could see the smile on Matt’s face as he continued to back away from Pidge slowly. “I'll be back in no time, Pidge.” He said, picking up speed on his backwards walk. “You better, or I'm coming out to space to get ya!” She said playfully, and watched as Matt turned around and bolted towards the pilot. 

She watched the ship take off until it was completely out of the sight. 

One day, she promised herself, she would fly like that. 

~~~~~~

 

Pidge Gunderson. 

Nobody knew Matt called her Pidge, so the alias shouldn't be figured out. She had hacked into multiple different systems (so many that she should be arrested and put in jail) to produce the required schooling years, grades, and a clean bill of health for “Pidge Gunderson”. 

She promised to herself she could control her seizures. Nobody would ever know if she never had one. She continued taking her medication, having hacked into the pharmacy as well so she could pick up new bottles when she ran out, and God with all the hacking and illegal things she was doing she really should be locked up, but as long as she hid the code well enough nobody could possibly find out. She was passing all her classes with flying colors, and she had a single dorm so she could shower and change in peace. 

That was, until she was moved up to simulation-level cadet. 

At least she wasn't the pilot, but she was on technologies. The other cadets in her team were... something. Lance couldn't pilot without messing something up and sending the simulation ship hurling towards a pile of rock or just straight up crashing into the ground. However, Pidge thought he was a better pilot than she would ever be. Hunk couldn't fly a simulation round without throwing up, and she was told she was too careless with her actions. 

But as long as she had a chance to find Matt and her dad, all the sneaking around and studying was worth it. 

~~~~~~

Things...really hadn't gone according to plan. 

Her, Hunk and Lance had to rescue the pilot of the Kerberos Mission, along with some guy named Keith. 

And now she was stuck in an intergalactic alien war, piloting one of pieces to the universe's greatest weapon. 

The first time she had laid her hands on Green’s controls, she was sweating (much, much more than usual), and she felt her hands start to shake out of fear. She had closed her eyes, and reminded herself who she was doing this for. Dad and Matt. And how proud they would be when she found them. Not if, when. Because after everything happening, she was closer to finding out than she had ever been. 

Now, sitting on her bed in the Castle, she realized there was one major, major problem. 

Her medication. 

She had been on epilepsy medication her entire life, never forgetting to take it or going off of it. When they rescued Shiro, she had the prescription bottle nestled in her pocket like she always did. But that was just one bottle, and it was already halfway empty when they came up to space. Taking it on a routine schedule had been easy enough, just take one when you wake up, and everything is okay. And nobody has to know. Because if they knew, they couldn't keep her as a paladin, right? It would be too risky, if she had a seizure on the battlefield and they couldn't form Voltron because of it, and they lost the lions and their lives. 

Pidge couldn't be responsible for that. But without her medication, she was certain that outcome was all but inevitable. 

She was weighing her options currently. She could keep it a secret and run out of medication, putting herself, the other paladins, and the universe at risk. Or, she could tell Coran, hope he doesn't kick her off the team, and hopefully he could do some freaky thing with the Altean Technology and make more of the medication. 

It was putting herself above the universe. 

And she knew the universe was much much more important. 

She took the orange prescription bottle, which had a few more oval shaped white pills left rattling around, and headed down to the medbay. 

~~~~~~

“Hey, uh...Coran?” She asked shyly as the door to the medbay swished open.  
The ginger man swirled around to face Pidge, and a small smile swept across his face when he rested his eyes onto hers.  
“Ah! Number Five! What can I do for you? Are you hurt from our last battle?” He said with the same joyful tone he addressed everybody and everything with.  
“No, no I'm not hurt, I'm okay. Well, as okay as I can be... Coran, do Alteans have seizures?” She blurted out. She didn't want to intend the conversation past what was needed. Just because they had been together in the Castle ship for what she calculated to be about three weeks Earth time didn't mean she liked having leisurely conversations that go nowhere.  
Coran twirled his mustache a little bit. “I don't think I've ever heard of that, no.”  
“Like, a sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain. It affects how somebody feels or acts over a short period of time...do Alteans have anything like that?” She asked, moving her glasses up the bridge of her nose.  
Coran seemed to be thinking for a while, then he snapped his fingers like he had remembered something after years of having amnesia. “We do, in fact. It's called a Tonca! Allura had one when she was little.” His face saddened a bit. Pidge guessed it wasn't the best memory from ancient Altea.  
“Okay...well on Earth, we call them seizures. And if you have multiple of them, sometimes you have a disorder called epilepsy-” Pidge tried to explain, but Coran interrupted with a worried tone.  
“Humans can have more than one Tonca!? Alteans can pass from just having one!” His eyes were widened in a way Pidge had never seen them before, like this was the most troubling news he'd ever heard.  
“Uh...yeah, we can. And the thing is, I...I, uh…” Pidge was surprised to see Coran listening intently with no desire to interrupt. “...I have epilepsy. And I need medication to make sure I don't have seizures...and I'm almost out.” She said shyly. 

As it turns out, Coran didn't kick her of the team. He even agreed to not tell the others. He had taken one of the pills from the bottle and scanned it's contents, making a list on a computer pad while Pidge sat on the medbay floor clicking away at her own laptop. After about two doboshes, Coran spoke.  
“Ah-Hah! I've made I replacement that should work even better, from scanning the contents of this “medication”” Pidge immediately ran over to his workstation, and saw a ton of little, purple circles. They were bigger than the original pills, but Pidge didn't mind. She thanked Coran, taking the pills back to her room. He was a lifesaver. 

With these, nothing could happen…she hoped.

~~~~~~

Ashamed and embarrassed.

She sat there, ashamed and embarrassed, her head still spinning and vision still a little cloudy. Lance had carried her back to the couch in the Commons room, and she sniffled at the tears beginning to form in her eyes. She had a seizure. In front of everybody. That's really all she remembered, and being carried down a hallway by Lance and sat down on the couch. She heard the door swish open and she buried her head in her hands. She didn't want anybody to see her like this.  
“Hey Pidge?” The voice of the person that just entered the room rang in her ears.  
She sighed. “I don't want to talk right now, Shiro.”  
She couldn't see anything with her head in her hands, but she could hear the hard footsteps coming closer. Something soft was placed against her lap, and she opened her eyes to find a fuzzy black blanket on her lap and Shiro sitting next to her.  
“Don't be ashamed, Pidge.” He said quietly, a softness in his tone she had never heard before.  
“These things happen.” He continued even without a response. “Lance was smart and quick about it, and he noticed almost right away. One of his younger sisters is in the same boat as you.”  
“Everybody saw me.” She said through muffled tears.  
“So? I'm experienced with seizures, you shouldn't worry that I'll think less of you, because I won't. I know some on how to deal with it, but Lance...Lance knows it all. He was so protective of you. Lance, I know for a fact won't judge you because of this. You know Hunk is just worried about you, he's baking your favorite peanut butter cookies right now. Allura said she’s had the Altean equivalent of a seizure before, and she understands. And Keith? Keith used to have seizures caused by stress. I'm the only one he's ever told, so don't tell him I said that. And Coran apparently knew. We all understand, Pidge. It's okay.” Shiro patted her back reassuringly as she heard the door swish open. 

That night, they all hung out and talked about thing from Earth, comparing Earth to Altea and sharing stories. Everything was perfect, but it was normal. Like nothing changed. 

And Pidge realized nothing had changed. They were together forever, no matter what happens. And her having epilepsy didn't change a thing, because she was still her. 

They were one big, giant space family. 

And Pidge loved it.

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
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